Daily Herald columnist Jim Slusher: Good news may not sell, but we can't do without it

A line in a note from a reader about my column last week focusing on good news stories has stuck with me.

Fred Dryden, of Huntley, began his email with a reflection on the negativity found so often in newspapers and other media and invoked the common notion that this negativity is "what sells."

He is right about that, of course, but only to a point. We do a lot of tracking of readership of our stories online, and there is no question that the sensational and the controversial attract larger numbers. The so-called "eyeball factor" is what drives so many online outlets and news sources to appeal to readers with "clickbait" headlines tending toward alarm or outrage. But positive, uplifting stories sometimes also do well. And, more to the point, I think, the issue has to do with balance and loyalty - and to some extent medium.

In the early days of the internet, it was not expected - nor was it common - that users would spend a lot of time with a story. The idea was to build numbers - "hits" - with stories that would grab readers' attention and not require too much reading time. The philosophy was not unlike that of many tabloid papers reliant on single-copy and newsstand sales, which emphasized screaming headlines and sensational news stories.

But newspapers such as the Daily Herald that rely more heavily on subscriptions have learned that, while alarming, controversial stories have their place - on the front page and elsewhere throughout the paper - an emphasis on such reporting can actually threaten subscriber loyalty. People who are committed to picking up the paper every day don't want a steady diet of such news. They want to know about important controversies or alarming crimes and disasters, but they don't want to feel like that is the sum total of their world.

"Consuming good news usually makes us happier and more optimistic about the world, because it reminds us that the world is a good place," says Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, an author and former psychology professor at Harvard in an advertising-supported post at the Washington Post's web site.

Dedicated newspaper readers value such reminders, but it would be pollyannaish to suggest that newspapers would flourish if they focused solely on good news. There have been various attempts to produce "all-good-news" publications over the years, few of which have had much, if any, success. "Grit," a weekly national newspaper I learned of as a young Cub Scout reading "Boy's Life" magazine, made a decent go of it for many years, but never achieved the popularity of such mainstream news sources as Newsweek or Time magazine. You can still find it, though, online at www.grit.com and subscribe to its bi-monthly hard copy edition. For that matter, if you just want a fix of good news, you can just Google "good news web sites" and you'll find a host of options. And, of course, back here at the Daily Herald, in addition to the many positive stories we produce, we have our Good News Sunday feature and the online Good News newsletter you can sign up for at www.dailyherald.com/newsletters.

My guess is that few people will be happy with a steady diet of nothing but good news. We have to deal with a real world that is sometimes difficult and ugly, so it's important to see it with its flaws as well as its virtues.

Just don't forget the virtues.

"I believe there are a lot more good people doing a lot of good things than we ever hear about," Fred Dryden wrote in his email. "Those people don't look for recognition, but only a simple 'thank you' will suffice. These acts of kindness will seldom make the newspapers, but they will make the day of at least two people."

We believe that regular examples of such acts, even if they don't dominate the news, are what really sells newspapers, and we hope you'll always find evidence of them in the Daily Herald to remind you that the world - and the suburbs, in particular - is a good place.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is deputy managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.